The Santa in the Solution
by forensicsfan
Summary: Santa meets his demise and during the ensuing investigation, snippets of truth about what Booth and Brennan have been to each other over the years begins to filter through to Hannah.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I certainly don't profit from them

**Author's Note:** This is a little Christmas and New Year's gift to all of you. Not sure how many chapters this will turn into, but I hope you enjoy the little journey.

* * *

"What is it with Christmas and people blowing up Santa?" Booth was having a serious sense of de ja vu as he sat on an exam table while Bones plucked pieces of human goo from his hair. And if people weren't blowing up Santa at Christmastime they were killing him and dumping him into a sewer after whacking him over the head with a bell. What ever happened to peace on earth and good will toward men, at least at this time of year?

"As a central figure to the secular observation of the Christmas holiday, I could see how someone might want to utilize Santa as a cover." She plucked a piece of the hyoid process and placed it into a tray where she'd been collecting the other pieces of the bombing victim.

"Only in this case, I'm pretty sure that Santa was a victim." And he was convinced that it was a Christmas miracle that Santa had been the only casualty. Whoever had planted the pressure sensitive bomb had put it right under the chair the poor guy was taking a seat at the beginning of his shift. A few moments later and it might well have taken out the hordes of people that had been waiting in line near the entrance to the mall's 'North Pole'. As for Booth, he'd been at the mall picking up a present for Parker and was walking by one of the gaps in the enclosure that made up Santa's home just as the poor bastard sat down and was blown to bits.

Brennan leaned in closely and then plucked another bit of tissue from his hair and placed it in the tray. Certainly Cam and Hodgins would want to take a look at it. "You have vascular tissue on your jacket. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to remove your clothes." It would be far easier to pluck the tissue from the fabric without Booth in it.

"Not again." There was a distinct whine in his voice. "I still need to interview Santa's elves." He really wished that he'd waited until after work to go to the mall rather than on his lunch hour. But no, he thought it would be a quick trip so he could hide the present in his office where Parker would never be able to find it. Now the present was probably evidence too and he'd have to find something else to give him for Christmas.

"You're evidence." She slid the jacket off of his shoulders and placed it in an evidence bag. "Cam and Hodgins will want to check your clothes for particulates." And given that a bomb was involved, those particulates would likely include residue that would offer clues as to what was used in making the bomb.

"And this is a new suit." He didn't want to mention that it had been an early Christmas gift from Hannah. A gift that he was never going to see again once Hodgins got his hands on it. There was something about the glee that Hodgins took to tearing things like a nice suit apart in search of bugs and slime that annoyed him.

"I'm sure you can get another one." She loosened his tie and carefully pulled it over his head before placing it in the bag with the jacket. She made a mental note of the fact that it wasn't as flashy as the ties he usually wore, no doubt a gift from Hannah. "Now I need your shirt." She simply began to unbutton it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She glanced up and caught his eyes for a moment and smiled before turning her attention back to getting the shirt off of him.

As the shirt joined the jacket and the tie, Booth started to feel his airway constricting. This was not a position that he'd envisioned himself ever being in again and now that he was, he was sure he was going to be sent straight to Hell for the thoughts he was having. He clenched his eyes shut as he felt her fingers lay hold of his belt.

"More vascular tissue on your Cocky belt buckle." She easily unfastened it and slipped it off. As clinical as her voice sounded, she was starting to feel a little warm and a bit fuzzy at the thought that she'd really like to pull that belt of his off under entirely different circumstances. Of course there was the problem of a certain investigative reporter that was still standing in between them. She tried not to sigh as she considered if maybe this was how Booth had felt when she'd been with Sully.

"Of course there is." He was sure that his voice had pitched just a little higher and he was afraid that something else was going to pitch higher too as he felt a whoosh of air as she slid his pants down. Nothing like having a beautiful woman at eye level with his boxers as his slacks pooled around his ankles when he was still dating another beautiful woman. Hockey statistics and Catholic saints began an elaborate battle in his mind to try and distract him from the warm puffs of air hitting his nether region.

The door to the room swung open and the air seemed to suck out of the room at the surprised gasp that sounded. For once in her life, Hannah Burley was speechless. She looked from her boyfriend to his partner and back again as if she was trying to make some sense of what she was seeing.

"Hannah." Booth's voice was definitely much higher pitched than he'd intended and he took note of the single arched brow of the woman he was addressing even as he stepped out of his pants. Clearly this didn't look good, but it was all in the name of catching bad guys.

Brennan glanced up and noticed the befuddled expression on the reporter's face. "We're collecting evidence. Santa blew up on Booth."

"Evidence." Hannah looked very skeptical that collecting evidence was the only thing going on in the room. Yes, she had heard something about an explosion at a mall, she was a reporter after all. She'd just had no idea that Seeley had been involved.

Brennan straightened up and looked directly at the blond. "Yes, the more of the remnants of the victim we can find the clearer picture we'll have to solve the case." She glanced over at Booth and then leaned in, her gaze narrowing. "I think I just found a piece of fabric." The red could have been from the amount of blood, or just the velvety texture of the suit Santa was wearing. She tweezed it out of his hair and placed it in another tray.

"Should I...?" Hannah's words trailed off as she realized she wasn't sure if she should insist on staying, leave because the idea that pieces of another person were all over Seeley, or maybe offer to get some food. She immediately ruled out the third idea simply because she was starting to feel a little ill.

"Go. You should go. I'm fine." This felt more than awkward to Booth. There was a palpable tension in the room and even if he was the only one who felt it, it was still there. "Although I could use some clothes." Yes, being nearly naked with the two most important women in his life in the room was not a good thing, not when he was supposed to be dating one, but couldn't help but think about the other.

"Yes, Booth's clothes are evidence." Brennan gestured towards the bags where she'd placed them and then turned her attention back to his hair where she found a bit more goo.

"Oh." Hannah didn't like the idea of leaving them like this, but the sooner she returned with a change of clothes for him, the sooner he wouldn't be so undressed in front of Temperance. "Sure." She glanced at his festive Christmas boxers and raised an eyebrow again. "You're not going to need a _complete_ change of clothes are you?" The implication was clear.

"No." Booth's voice pitched upwards again.

"I've removed all of the clothes we need for now." Brennan smiled sweetly at Hannah and continued her inspection of Booth's hair.

The words 'for now' made Hannah's eyes bug out a little and if she'd been a cartoon character, steam would have poured out of her ears. "Okay then, I'll be back soon."

"Thanks." Booth swallowed hard as he watched his girlfriend turn on her heels and leave. "Hannah." Her name came out after she was out of sight as he was trying to remind himself which woman it was that he was supposed to be dating as little warm puffs of Bones' breath kept hitting his neck and shoulders and chest. Yes, he was definitely going to Hell for Christmas.


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, he's in Brennan's office, but I wouldn't go in there right now if I were you." Angela intercepted Hannah who was clearly in search of Booth.

Hannah's eyes widened with a little surprise as she stopped in her tracks and hefted up the duffle bag she had in her hand. "But he needs clothes." Whatever it was that Seeley was doing in Temperance's office half naked couldn't possibly be important enough _not_ to interrupt.

"He's interviewing Santa's elves from the mall." There was just something about this whole scenario that had Angela's hopes for Booth and Brennan getting a second chance at taking a chance rising again. Not that she disliked Hannah, she was just one thousand percent certain that Booth and Brennan were destined to be together forever and even smart, beautiful war correspondents didn't stand a chance against fate.

"In his Christmas boxers?" Hannah's eyebrows shot up. Just how many women were getting the benefit of seeing her man nearly naked? She huffed out a breath and made a move towards Temperance's office anyway.

"Don't worry he's got a lab coat on. But I really wouldn't go in there. As a reporter I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to be privy to the details of an ongoing homicide investigation." Angela had been around long enough to know that letting Hannah into the middle of an interview was a big no, no even if she as Booth's current woman.

"But I have his clothes." Hannah looked frustrated and hefted the duffel bag up again. She really was anxious to get Seeley into something more decent than a lab coat.

"Oh, I can make sure he gets those as soon as they're done in there." Angela smiled sweetly and took note of the expression on the other woman's face. "And it's not like we haven't all seen Booth in his underwear before." Memories of another December and a similar case drifted through her mind. Agent Studly certainly was F. candy.

"What?" This was complete news to Hannah and as a newswoman, she liked being the one to get the scoop, and all of her senses were telling her that Angela Montenegro-Hodgins was a wealth of tidbits of information that were part of a story that she might regret hearing, but at the same time she couldn't resist.

Angela let out a chuckle. "There's just something about Christmas and seeing Booth in his boxers. Why don't we go sit in the lounge with a cup of coffee until they're done." This was a story that was going to take a while and she had a feeling that it was only going to help Team Brennan in the end.

"Okay." Hannah forced a smile as she followed Angela up the stairs.

Meanwhile down in Brennan's office, the interview that Booth was conducting with two college-aged girls who had been working as Santa's elves had turned a bit awkward because they couldn't seem to get over the fact that this hunky FBI agent was sitting there in nothing but a lab coat, boxers and some flashy socks.

"Let's just focus for a minute, okay, Holly?" Booth flashed his best charm smile in hopes that they could speed this right along so he could go find out if Hannah had made it back with his clothes. At least Bones had stuck around to help, but he wasn't so sure that she was being much help with the way she seemed to be checking him out too.

"Sorry, Agent Booth, but you're really, really ripped and for an old guy you're really hot too." The girl looked to be about nineteen or twenty and not all that embarrassed to be staring. She glanced over at her coworker to see what her opinion was. "Isn't he hot, Faith?"

"I guess for an old guy. I personally prefer someone like Jimmy Thompson." Faith didn't seem at all interested in focusing in on the most horrifying and disgusting thing she'd ever seen so she could tell someone else who had witnessed it what she had seen. What she really wanted right then was to go home take a long hot bath and then put on a chick flick and down a pint of Ben and Jerry's to try and forget what had happened today.

"While I would have to agree that Agent Booth _is_ very attractive for a man his age by most standards, we really need to you answer his questions so that we can find out who killed Santa." Brennan was running out of patience with the two girls who didn't seem to grasp the importance of time in finding out who had planted the bomb.

"For a man my age?" Booth glanced over at his partner and gave her one of those looks that could melt plastic. "I'm not that old." He wasn't even close to old. In fact he wasn't even sure he'd hit his prime yet. If he wasn't dating Hannah he had half a mind to show her who wasn't old. He inwardly cursed as he reminded himself that he was dating Hannah and he needed to banish the inappropriate thoughts about his partner that had been swirling through his mind since she'd undressed him in the name of evidence collection.

"No, but to them you are." Brennan shrugged her shoulders and sat down next to him on the couch to try and disrupt the visual fix that the two girls seemed to hold on Booth. "Now, the sooner you can give a statement, the sooner that you can go home". At least Daisy and Wendell had been available to pluck remnants of human remains from the pair before they'd had the chance to interview them.

"Okay, fine." Holly huffed out and rolled her eyes. "It was like we said. We were standing right by the gate to open up the North Pole when Santa got blasted all to Hell. Five minutes later and little kids would have been splattered with Santa goo too."

Faith seemed to be the more squeamish of the two as her face paled. "His name was Paul, not Santa goo. He has two kids and a wife." She looked over at Booth and added her own version of the events. "He was subbing for Tim who called in sick."

Booth addressed both girls. "Did Tim and Paul get along?"

"I guess. They never actually worked at the same time. _Obviously_." Holly rolled her eyes again. "Can't have two Santas."

"Did you see or hear anything out of the ordinary?" Booth was definitely forming the opinion that neither of these two would ever become rocket scientists.

"Duh, an explosion and then goo." Holly looked at him as if he'd grown a third ear.

"I mean _before_ the explosion." His most patient smile was pasted on his face and it was all he could do to not reach over and flick her between the eyes.

"Oh." Holly shrugged her shoulders. "Not that I can remember. Just the same stuff as any other shift. Cheesy Christmas tunes playing in the mall and little kids whining that they want a whole lot of crap from Santa."

Faith chimed in. "We were the first shift of the day. Other than the mall janitors, the only people in the North Pole before us were the people from the last shift yesterday."

"Do you know who was working last night?" Brennan was sure that Booth was going to have to find out who was actually in charge of staffing the North Pole so he could get some more precise answers.

"You'll have to ask Randy." Holly let out a heavy sigh and looked from Booth to Brennan and back again. "Can we go now? I really want to take a shower."

"I've told you all I know, but if I remember anything else, I'll be sure and call you." Faith felt like she was on the verge of a meltdown and she couldn't wait to get out of there.

"Sure." Booth didn't think he was going to get anything more out of them that was going to be useful.

As the girls stood to leave, Holly turned to look at them with a delighted smirk on her face. "Doctor Brennan you are a lucky woman to get to work with someone as hot as he is. I sure hope you're taking full advantage of it. I mean if I worked with someone as hot as him, I'm not sure I could resist."

"Okay, now that is way out of line." Booth stood up, hands on his hips and delivered a glare that would have incinerated the ground it if weren't for the getup he was wearing. "A little respect here, okay."

"Let me apologize for Holly. She overcompensates by being inappropriate." Faith shoved Holly towards the door before the FBI agent changed his mind.

"You are difficult to resist, especially when you're arresting someone." Brennan stood next to him and smiled.

"Thanks, Bones." Okay, he was feeling awkward again. He flashed a grin at her and then gestured toward the door. "I'm going to go see if Hannah is back yet with my clothes."

She gave him a once over as if she was just noticing what he was wearing for the first time. "Clothes, yes. I suppose it would be more appropriate if you were wearing some."


	3. Chapter 3

"Nice look there Studly." Angela's smirk made it clear that she was enjoying the view as Booth tromped up the stairs to the lounge where she and Hannah had been sitting. Even in his lab coat ensemble the man provided some very nice scenery.

His eyes widened almost imperceptibly as he noticed a similar look cross Hannah's face and he wondered to himself what in the world Angela had been telling her. He ignored Angela's comment and put on his best smile for Hannah when he noticed his duffel bag at her feet. "Thanks for bringing me some clothes." Usually he kept a spare set in his SUV, but lately it seemed he had more goo flying at him in the line of duty than usual.

"Uh, no problem." Hannah looked at him as if she was trying to process something that wasn't quite in line with her reality. "I should probably go. My editor called and they want me to go and cover the story at the mall. You know, get some first person accounts and all." This despite the fact that the best first person account she could have hoped for was standing right in front of her.

Booth quirked an eyebrow at her, but didn't stop her. "Okay. See you later at home then." Something had definitely happened here and he got the distinct feeling from the essence of BS in the air that the after effects weren't going to be in his favor – at least when it concerned the world of Hannah Burley.

Even Angela noticed the brush off, but at least had the decency to keep her mouth shut as a very chaste and perfunctory kiss was exchanged between the pair before Hannah dashed off, presumably towards some non-existent story. She offered a slightly lecherous grin to Booth. "I know I wouldn't mind if you stayed dressed like that all day." Married or not, she certainly wasn't blind.

Booth simply glared at her and grabbed the duffel bag and headed off in the direction of the nearest restroom so he could change into some real clothes.

* * *

Several hours later, a very tired Seeley Booth opened the door of his apartment to the aroma of something that smelled delicious. Somehow he'd expected from the way Hannah had departed the lab that he was in for the interrogation of the century. Instead, it seemed she'd transformed into some sort of domestic goddess. Well either that or he had just walked into an alternate reality.

"Oh, good, you're home." A smile and bright eyes poked around the corner at him before ducking back into the galley kitchen. "I hope you're hungry." She hadn't gone to cover the mall story at all and in retrospect she was sure that Seeley knew that, so instead she'd gone to the market and decided to make a meal that she hoped was worthy of Martha Stewart or at the very least, Rachel Ray.

"Starving actually." He wasn't going to try and read anything into what he'd come home to. He was simply going to try and relax after a very stressful day with the woman he was supposed to be in love with. He mentally smacked himself up side the head. Where the Hell had that come from? He wasn't _supposed_ to be in love with Hannah. He _was_ in love with Hannah. Wasn't he? He shook his head and rubbed his temples in an attempt to clear his head a little. He. Loved. Hannah. There, he was just going to keep repeating it to himself until these inappropriate thoughts about Bones went away. He. Loved. Hannah.

"Dinner is almost ready. Why don't you pour the wine and I'll bring in the pasta." She'd made a green salad and had picked up some freshly baked bread. She was holding back the dessert if she needed to implement a secret weapon. She'd had a very interesting chat with Angela earlier and she wanted to throw a few things out over dinner and see where all of this went.

The fact that she had bought wine set him on high alert that something was up. If she hadn't nearly freaked out herself months ago about _him_ serving wine for dinner, he wouldn't have thought anything of it. He hadn't gotten to be an FBI Special Agent by missing out on the subtle hints all around him. He was just pouring the wine when she settled into the seat across from him and set the dish with the pasta in between them. He smiled. "This looks good. Thank you."

"Well I ended up having some free time this afternoon after all, so I thought it would be nice to do something nice for you." She smiled back. "How is your investigation going?" Nothing like starting out with the obvious before she eased into what was really on her mind.

"Nothing solid so far. Bones and I spent the afternoon interviewing everyone who works at the North Pole, but no one really stands out so far." That wasn't completely true, they had a couple of potential suspects, but he had a fine line between sharing with his girlfriend and giving a headline grabbing scoop to a top reporter. He served up a generous portion of the pasta dish onto his plate, followed it with some salad and plucked a piece of bread as he watched her do the same.

"Well I'm sure that you and Temperance will get to the bottom of it." Another smile and a forkful of pasta made its way to her mouth. So far he didn't seem to sense that anything was out of the ordinary.

He took a bite of his dinner and nodded. "This is really good, Hannah." Now if he could just get Bones out of his mind he might be able to enjoy the evening. That is if the bombshell he was expecting her to drop didn't actually drop. He was still convinced that Angela had told her something that he was going to regret.

"It's a little recipe I picked up from the food editor." And if she was being honest with herself, she hoped that it put him enough at ease that he would never see the reporter in her being launched into the conversation.

"Well it's really good." He dished in a few more bites and reached for his wine. For her to have spent time looking for the food editor meant that she was definitely up to something. He knew Hannah well enough to know that she would much rather be out sniffing down a story in a war zone than getting chummy with a feature editor.

"Angela certainly seems to be looking forward to motherhood." Hannah cautiously took a sip of her own wine as she noted a slight tensing in his jaw as he sipped his. It could have been a normal physical process of swallowing - she wasn't an expert in physical science after all - but she was starting to sense that he was feeling an interrogation coming on.

"Yeah, her and Hodgins are going to spoil that kid rotten." He let out a soft chuckle and scooped another bite of pasta into his mouth. Oh, yeah, something was definitely up and he really did not like the direction this was going in at all.

"Angela told me that Temperance was interested in motherhood not that long ago." She tried to keep her tone as casual as possible, but could see a slight tick in Seeley's jaw. She narrowed her gaze at him. He didn't look guilty, but he sure as Hell smelled guilty.

"She did, did she?" Booth could smell a trap and he wasn't about to walk into it willingly. He was all for sharing things with the woman he was supposed to love, but he didn't particularly like feeling as if he was being roped into sharing things that he didn't feel quite ready to share or that he was sure she wouldn't possibly understand at this point.

"Yes, she did." She took another bite of her pasta and another sip of her wine and waited until he'd taken a bite of his. "She said Temperance had even lined up a sperm donor." The tone implied skepticism and a whole lot more as she leaned back in her chair just a bit.

Booth nearly choked, but recovered nicely, taking a leisurely sip of his wine as he considered how he was going to explain to Hodgins why he was going to be raising his child alone after he'd slowly killed Angela for being a world class blabbermouth. His eyes flicked up to Hannah casually. "I think Bones would be a good mom."

Hannah's eyes bulged. "You mean to _your_ child? You donated your sperm so _she_ could have _your_ child? That's not something that normal people do for a work partner." And as far as she knew, the sperm was still out there waiting to be used. She liked Temperance, but she really wasn't sure what she would do if a child came into the equation. There was no way that she could compete with that and for the first time since she'd given up what was most important to her for him, she really wasn't sure where she stood with Seeley Booth.


	4. Chapter 4

Booth did not sleep well. Between having a pieces of his life he hadn't planned on sharing quite yet played out of Hannah's mouth like he was the scoop of the century and ending up sleeping on the couch in his own damn apartment he was in a rather foul mood by the time he made his way into the Hoover. He pitied any newbie agent who got in his way today. Blown up Santa or not, he wasn't in the mood for anyone gunning for a promotion because they'd hit the suspect lotto on this case. He took a sip of the craptastic coffee and grumbled when he heard a tap at his door and slammed the cup down onto his desk a little too hard, sloshing coffee on some memo that was probably important. The last person he wanted to see when he was in a mood like this hovered in the doorway like a vulture waiting for the lions to vacate their prey. He glowered as if it would actually have any affect on keeping the man at bay. "What do you want, Sweets?"

"Well, I put together the profile you and Dr. Brennan requested on who our potential bomber is." An observant glance made him pause and then modulate his speech carefully. "Agent Booth, you seem agitated."

"I am not agitated." His glare and the precision of his tone told otherwise and he knew it.

Sweets weighed whether it was prudent to head down this path, but didn't even heed his own better judgment. "Your clenched jaw and the tapping of your foot indicate otherwise."

"Look, Sweets, I'm tired and I haven't had enough coffee to be in the mood for your shrinky-dink services. I have a case to solve and I'd appreciate if you could just give me the profile so Bones and I can go over it." He was more than anxious to get Sweets out of his office so he could pull himself together enough before he shot something. As it stood right now, he was afraid if he walked into the Jeffersonian that Angela would be the first one in his crosshairs.

"I thought that we were meeting Dr. Brennan at the Jeffersonian. That's one of the reasons that I'm here, I thought we could carpool." Truth be told, he had planned to drive himself, but that was before he'd run into an agent who'd commented how Booth looked like he was about to go ballistic on anyone that happened across his path, advising them to give him a wide berth for a few hours.

At the mention of the meeting that he completely forgot, but knew he couldn't bug out on, his shoulders sagged a little. "Fine." He might capitulate on carpooling, but there was no way in Hell that he was going to let Sweets dig into his personal life.

"Great." Sweets knew that his smile was too wide and so he tried to tone it down a little. He followed Booth out of his office towards the elevator.

Booth's arms were crossed over his chest as they waited for the elevator and the way he was clenching his teeth he was sure he was going to have a headache to go right along with the backache he had from sleeping on the couch.

In attempt to make small talk, Sweets stepped right onto a verbal land mine. "So how's Hannah?"

Booth's eyes narrowed and if he had been in a cartoon, smoke would have started billowing from his ears. His growl was low and decidedly threatening as the elevator dinged its arrival. "Take the next elevator." He stepped inside and pressed the button to close the door, leaving Sweets to fend for himself.

* * *

Angela could feel the tension in the air even before she saw Booth quickly striding into the lab, making a beeline right for her office. Clearly there was trouble in paradise given the furrowed brow and clenched jaw. She tried to refocus her attention on the video footage that they'd gotten from mall security in hopes that they'd be able to identify who had planted the bomb even though she knew she was about to have a very agitated visitor.

Booth didn't mince words as he stormed in. "Why did you tell Hannah that I donated my sperm to Bones." Of all the things that she could have told his girlfriend, why she had to choose that little detail was beyond him. At least she hadn't mentioned the damn coma.

Angela raised a single eyebrow at him and remained entirely unruffled. "Well good morning to you too. And for the record, Booth, I _didn't_ tell Hannah about your little donation. She apparently made an intuitive leap that you didn't deny."

"What?" He felt a sinking feeling that he'd been hooked, reeled in, and then sunk by his investigative reporter girlfriend. The anger he'd been feeding towards Angela suddenly seemed to shift targets.

"Okay, I might have mentioned that Brennan had been thinking about having a baby a while ago and had secured a sperm donor, but I swear that I did not say who it was." She crossed her arm in front of her and stared him down with a look that said she could clearly kick his ass.

"How does that even come up in conversation?" He felt like his head was spinning, or maybe that her head was spinning. Either way, this was _not_ his fault.

"Oh, we were talking about my due date, and then how Cam and Michelle happened, and somewhere in the middle of it Brennan came up." All of a sudden Angela felt like she'd been set up by the reporter, which made her wonder if Hannah had already had her suspicions that there was more than everyone claimed between Booth and Brennan. Oh, yes, there was definitely trouble in paradise.

With his hands resting on his hips, Booth glanced out the window to make sure that Sweets hadn't shown up yet. He turned his attention back to Angela. "Just do me a favor, try and avoid dishing out the details of my life before I'm ready to go there. There's a lot of room for misunderstanding." Not that being able to explain some of it himself would make any more sense than the way the whole sperm donation thing had come out.

"Sure." She smirked at him and wondered who he was trying to convince.

He turned on his heels and headed towards Bones' office before Sweets arrived and had the opportunity to quiz her about his behavior back at the Hoover. He put on his best smile and sauntered into her office as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Hey, Bones."

"I thought Sweets was supposed to come too." Brennan glanced up from her desk and gave him a curious glance.

"I needed to check on the video footage that Angela was working on so I came over early." A lie, but Bones didn't need to know that.

"Oh, good. Has she made any progress" Brennan hoped that they would get a break with solid evidence soon. She had limited confidence in Sweets' profiling since it was subjective, even if he had come through for them before.

"She's still reviewing it. Nothing so far." He was sure that if Angela had come up with something she would have been sure to interrupt his diatribe to tell him.

Sweets breezed right in, taking note of how much calmer Agent Booth appeared and wondered exactly what had happened between him and Hannah that he was clearly trying to hide from Dr. Brennan. For now he was going to play along, but he certainly wasn't going to drop it. "Morning."

"You're late, Sweets." Booth smirked at him and raised an eyebrow in challenge to make it clear that if he dared say a word about what had happened earlier that he'd have no chance in his lifetime to be a father.

"Traffic." He held up the report he'd put together and pulled up a chair near Dr. Brennan's desk to go over his profile with the partners.


	5. Chapter 5

"I think you would agree, Agent Booth, that aggression can be a powerful motivator." Sweets still wasn't ready to let go of the conversation that had been abruptly ended in front of the elevator at the Hoover.

Booth narrowed his gaze in warning. No way in Hell was Sweets going to bring this up in front of Bones and live to see the end of the day. "So you think that Santa pissed someone off."

"I'm confused. Do you mean the figurative Santa representing the secular celebration of Christmas or the man wearing the Santa suit at the mall who was blown up?" Brennan really didn't put much stock in the profile that Sweets had put together, but she couldn't completely discount his track record either.

"I think he means the man in the suit at the mall that was blown up." Booth leaned towards her and whispered.

"Oh." She nodded and a satisfied smile spread across her face and she turned her attention back to Sweets.

"Not necessarily. The bomber could simply have something against the idea of Santa Claus, or perhaps didn't get what he wanted for Christmas one year." Sweets wondered if either of the partners had paid any attention at all to what he'd been saying for the last several minutes.

Booth glared at him.

"Or it could be personal." Sweets let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, as I've said before, all of this is subjective."

"So in other words, you don't know anything more than we did before you did the profile." Brennan believed it was a logical conclusion. Surely empirical evidence was far superior to psychology.

"When you put it like that." There was a hint of a whine in Sweets voice as he considered whether this was just Dr. Brennan's way of deflecting what she referred to as a soft science or if she was simply stating the obvious truth.

"Great." Booth was more than anxious to wrap up the meeting and get rid of Sweets before he decided to bring up Hannah again. "We'll let you know when we find out something more and you can spin your psycho wheel of fortune to adjust the profile."

"The profile isn't some mumbo jumbo that I've conjured up." Sweets looked appropriately offended. "But I will concede that more information would be helpful."

"Okay, then. Bones and I have some real case related things to do, so why don't you head back to your office." Booth's smile might as well have been a threat with a glare as he regarded the other man.

"What case related things do we have?" She wasn't aware of any new developments and she was sincerely curious.

"I'll brief you after Sweets leaves." He had nothing, but he wasn't about to admit it until the psycho wonder boy was gone.

As Sweets rose from his chair he offered his most professional smile. "Don't forget, we have a session this afternoon." A single raised brow and he turned to leave. If Agent Booth thought he was going to brush the interaction from earlier under the proverbial rug, he was sadly mistaken.

Brennan's brow furrowed. "I don't have a session on my calendar. Are you sure that it's today?" She was nothing if not precise and she was certain that she would have remembered if there was a session scheduled.

"I thought Agent Booth was going to inform you." Now that Sweets was doing his own recollecting, he might have been off by a day or two.

Booth had a smug look on his face. "It's not today, is it Sweets?"

Brennan quickly glanced at her calendar and then back up at the two men. "My calendar says that our appointment is on Thursday. This is only Tuesday."

"Tuesday, Thursday." Booth looked mildly amused. "They probably haven't gone over the days of the week in Sweets' class yet."

"What class is that? Doesn't he already have two doctorates?" Brennan was confused. She was all for more higher education, but if it was in the area of applied psychology, she wasn't sure how it was going to be at all beneficial.

"Agent Booth is trying to diminish my intellect so as to dismiss my assertion that we had an appointment. Clearly I was mistaken. I'll see you both on Thursday." With that, Sweets shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to leave. He might need the extra time just to mentally prepare himself for his next session with the partners.

There was silence for a long moment and then Brennan turned towards Booth. "What did you want to brief me on?" Surely if he had more insight on the case she wanted to know what it was.

He glanced up, and quickly tried to make something that might sound plausible. He pasted on his best smile and found that being alone with her was making all of those inappropriate thoughts he'd been struggling with to double their efforts. He swallowed hard and tried to ignore them. "I have a feeling that our victim was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Santa's elves said that Paul was subbing for Tim who called in sick. I think we need to take a second look at Tim."

"Is your gut telling you that?" She found that Booth's gut was often correct, even before the evidence confirmed it. The fact that he looked especially rakish in his appearance today just seemed to make non-logical thought irrationally attractive.

"Yeah, I guess it is." He let out a sigh. "I have to wonder if he somehow got wind of there being a bomb planted and if so, he probably knows who put it there." He was having a hard time distracting himself from being this close to Bones by reminding himself that he was in love with Hannah when he was sure that he was more than a little angry with the way she'd played him last night.

She nodded in agreement at the plausibility. "Or maybe he just held a grudge against Paul and planted the bomb himself."

Booth's eyes widened. "What did you say?"

"Did I say something wrong?" Trusting her gut was not her thing, that was Booth's thing. Clearly she should let him hold onto his area of expertise.

"No, I think maybe you've said something very right. I only wish I'd thought of it." Did she have to be such a freaking sexy genius all the time? Her theory made sense on some level. Well except for the fact that they still had no motive to speak of, but if anyone could have had access without arousing suspicion it would have been the other Santa.

"Does that mean we're going to go talk to Tim again now?" They had already verified that he had originally been scheduled to work and that he had called in sick, Brennan hoped that this meant that Booth was about to go all federal on his ass.

Booth shook his head. "I think we need to do a little more digging first. I don't want to go in for the kill and spook him."

"By going in for the kill, you're not actually talking about killing him. You're using a figure of speech aren't you?" She knew how much Booth hated taking a life and even if someone was a killer, she knew that he had faith in the system to enact the appropriate punishment.

He gave her one of those looks that might have questioned what she'd spiked her coffee with. "Of course it was a figure of speech. Since when do I go in to interview a suspect with guns blazing?" His tone came out a little harsh.

"I'm sorry." Brennan wasn't completely sure what their next step was and so she changed the subject and smiled at him softly. "How is Hannah? After yesterday, I was concerned that she was upset."

Booth growled out a snort at the mention of his girlfriend's name. "Upset doesn't even cover it."

"Did you explain that we were simply collecting evidence?" Her eyes flashed to his with concern and she reached out to touch his arm.

"I don't think it was the evidence collection she was upset about." He really did not want to get into this right now with Bones. He at least owed it to himself and Hannah to sit down and attempt to talk things through no matter how conflicted he was about his feelings for Bones. "Look, can we not talk about Hannah right now?"

She nodded and forced a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Of course."


	6. Chapter 6

All Booth wanted to do was have a drink and crawl in bed, he certainly wasn't in the mood to have that talk with Hannah, especially after the long day he'd had. However, the moment he walked in the door of his apartment, he knew that there was no avoiding the blond elephant in the room. He glanced over to where she was sitting on the couch looking very much like she'd been waiting for him. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." Her expression was much softer than it had been when she'd talked to him last, and perhaps that's because she'd had a nice heart to heart with herself. "You look like hell." A hint of a smile tempered the comment.

"It's been that kind of day." He wasn't sure if they were going to stay like this dancing around the obvious and so he just plowed on forward. "Look, it's apparent that there are things in my past that we haven't really talked about." That of course was an understatement.

"I didn't even give you a chance to explain. I'm sorry." She really did look apologetic, but there was something else there too. Call it resolve, call it an epiphany, either way, she seemed quietly confident.

Sensing that they weren't going to repeat the argument from the night before, he sank down onto the couch next to her and glanced over with a tiny smile. "It's not that I'm trying to hide things, but there are some things that aren't going to make sense without some sort of explanation."

"And there are some things that may not make any sense even _with_ explanation." Hannah's eyebrow was raised as if she were trying to make a bridge to a difficult point.

Booth looked at her for a long moment and then let out a resigned sigh. "I suppose that's fair." Offering up half of the genetic material required to make a child wasn't the same thing as offering someone a ride to the airport. Just how were you supposed to explain to your girlfriend that you'd offered that up to your partner?

"You had feelings for Temperance didn't you?" It was something that she'd wondered about, but given what she'd leaned from tidbits and her own reporter's instincts she wasn't so sure that those feelings were really all in the past.

He didn't say anything for a moment and then nodded. He really couldn't even begin to explain what Bones had meant to him, what she still meant to him. And he hadn't been lying when he'd told Hannah that he loved her, but the love he had for her lacked the depth of time that he had with Bones.

She reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. "Here's the thing. As much as I love being with you, I want you _all_ here and I'm just not sure you are. It seems to me that you haven't quite settled your feelings for her and I'm not willing to be the one that someone settles for."

Booth's eyes snapped up to hers. "You're not a consolation prize." But she wasn't exactly the grand prize either and he knew it and it seemed that she did too.

"But I'm still not first either." Her smile was sad and she let out a sigh.

His silence spoke volumes as he struggled with what to say.

"I think maybe our flame has gotten to the end of the wick." Her wanderlust had been calling to her and now seemed like a good time to get reacquainted.

"Are you breaking up with me?" He shouldn't have been shocked, but somehow he was taken by surprise.

"I'm going back to Afghanistan. I think you and Temperance need to figure out whatever it is that you're supposed to be. I just can't be second best." She didn't _want_ to break up with him, but knowing that he'd been wiling to have a child with his partner told her that she only knew a fraction of the story between them.

"So, you're breaking up with me then." He just wanted to be perfectly clear on where they stood.

She smiled sadly and she blinked back a few tears. "Yeah. You need to be free to find out if this life you're dreaming about has been right in front of you all the time. What we had was wonderful and exciting and very, very satisfying, but I think…no, I _know_ that I'm not really who you need and I've never been a girl to sit around and pine for a guy." It was going to hurt for a while, she really had cared for him, but she didn't want to be with a man that clearly wasn't completely sure he wanted to be with her.

Booth let out a heavy sigh and glanced over at her. "I never meant for things to work out this way." He had thrown himself into the relationship with Hannah never expecting Bones to confess that she regretted not giving him a chance. It was that nagging seed of doubt which apparently had spelled doom for he and Hannah.

"I know." She patted his hand reassuringly. "You're a good man, but I think it's time for me to go. Tell Parker that I said goodbye." She had her brave face on, but even she had her pride. She wanted to get herself settled into her hotel room so she could lick her wounds in private. This whole trying to act noble bit was emotionally exhausting.

"Can I give you a ride to wherever you've decided to stay?" He knew that she was going to say no even before she shook her head.

"I already took my things over and I've got an early meeting with my editor about the specifics of my assignment change." Besides, she really did not need him to know where she was staying in case either one of them had second thoughts about this separation. It was better to have a clean break and let him sort out what he really wanted. If in the end it was her that he wanted, he would find her. However, she felt a pang of hurt to know that she really didn't think she'd been seeing Seeley Booth again, at least as her boyfriend.

"Can I at least call you a cab?" It was a chivalrous gesture, but somehow he was sure that it was one that Hannah would turn down. She was a fiercely independent woman, just like Bones was, and she knew how to take care of herself.

"No, it's okay." She was sure that she was going to dissolve into tears the moment that she stepped into the cab she was going to hail as soon as she was several blocks down the street and she didn't want to prolong things by adding a second and more awkward goodbye. "I've got it taken care of."

"Okay." Booth gruffed out a sigh. "I'm really, really sorry." For a guy that used his people skills to put them at ease to confess crimes, he really didn't know what else to say.

"I am too." There was a moment where something hung in the air and just as quickly it was gone. Hannah leaned over and brushed her lips against his cheek before she placed the key he'd given her in his hand. "Goodbye, Seeley."

All of the air seemed to suck out of his lungs as she stood to rise and offered him a little wave before gathering up her purse and jacket, letting herself out the door. The click of the door latching broke him out of his reverie and the air whooshed back into his lungs as he finally breathed in. The stillness of the apartment cried out to him and he realized as he glanced around that there were no remnants of Hannah here, she had left as neatly as she'd come as if she'd known that she was just a temporary fixture in his life. But as he looked around, he saw pictures and trinkets in various places that spoke of the life he'd taken for granted, he saw pieces of Bones, memories of all of the times he'd spent with his partner and he wondered if he had royally screwed things up between them, or if there was still a chance that the thirty, forty, or fifty years he'd felt when he'd first met her still had a chance to happen.


	7. Chapter 7

He wore the flashiest tie in his wardrobe and paired them with a wild pair of socks. If his Cocky belt buckle could have been any cockier, he would have given it a transformation too. After spending the night tossing and turning despite knocking back a few shots of his good Scotch to dull the ache in his heart, Booth was determined the solve the Santa case today. Hannah was gone and he needed to come to grips with the fact that she wasn't coming back. And while he had to admit that he felt some measure of relief that the decision had been made for him, he really wasn't ready to lay his cards out in front of Bones yet either. Like any self respecting manly man, he need some time to lick his wounds and cry in his beer in the privacy of his own living room before taking any kind of action. Besides, he didn't want Bones thinking that she was his rebound girl, if she even knew what that was. What he had with Bones went far deeper than that and after basically pissing on whatever concept of true love that he'd preached to her for years by coming back from Afghanistan with Hannah, he needed to spend a little time earning her trust back and reaffirming what he believed about love himself.

If he was planning on solving the case, then he reasoned that pancakes and coffee were a good way to get started. The bell on the diner's door jingled when he pushed it open and he almost turned around and walked right back out when he spotted Sweets sitting at the counter eating his own breakfast. Of course since he was an FBI Special Agent, he wasn't going to let a juvenile shrink scare him away. He puffed his chest out just a little bit and sidled up to the counter. He had his best 'I don't have a care in the world' smile on as he greeted the younger man and took a seat. "Morning, Sweets."

If Sweets noticed anything amiss he didn't comment, he simply nodded. "Agent Booth." A quick inventory had him raising his brows just a bit. Either whatever had been bothering the agent the previous day had dissipated or he was overcompensating.

"A little early for you, isn't it?" Booth gestured to the waitress who already knew what his usual was and then turned his attention back to Sweets.

"Daisy had an early start at the lab." Sweets inwardly cursed for slipping. He and Daisy were taking things slow. Technically, they weren't a couple again. Well yet. It was his call really. It wasn't like they weren't spending most of their off work hours together. It occurred to him that he was a freaking idiot. What the hell was he waiting for? His expression soured.

"Okay." Booth wasn't sure what to make of the personal silent soap opera going on next to him and so he took a nice long sip of his coffee that the waitress had brought over to him.

"She's perfect for me really." He even felt like a wimp for feeling like crying in his coffee when it should have been something a bit stiffer like a rum and coke. "Do you know how hard it is to find the woman who is perfect for you? I'm an idiot. I should just tell her how I feel and realize that just because she left me to go to Maluku once doesn't mean she'll do it again." He had clearly over spoken when he glanced up and noticed Booth looking at him as if he'd just turned into an alien.

"Hey, I'm just here for breakfast. You're the one who's the shrink." Clearly the man needed a shrink given the little confession he'd made. Of course it also could have been some elaborate shrinky-dink scheme directed at him for not running right back to Bones after being dumped by Hannah. Of course the fact that he'd been dumped wasn't public knowledge and quite frankly, the last person that he wanted to share that nugget with first was Sweets.

"Sorry." Sweets shoveled a forkful of eggs into his mouth and chewed silently, swallowed and then turned to Booth again as if he just couldn't help himself. "I _wanted_ to take things slow, learn to trust her again, but what's the point if we're together all the time as it is. Clearly she wants this relationship as much as I do. I mean it isn't as if I found a meaningful relationship while she was gone."

Booth leveled one of his best glares at Sweets and then let his expression soften. As much as he liked giving the guy a hard time, he'd come to regard him as a friend most of the time. "You've got to use your head to follow your heart. She hurt you. You don't recover from that overnight. Just let things unfold the way they're going to unfold and when the time is right to make things more solid, you'll know."

Sweets smiled at the unexpected advice. "You're right."

"Look, the last thing you want is to make a move before either of you is ready." He had learned that the hard way and now he was reaping the benefits of bad timing and a broken heart that was trying to learn to trust in true love again.

"Sounds like you speak from personal experience." Perhaps this was a little insight into whatever had caused the outburst near the elevator yesterday.

Booth glared. "We aren't talking about me, got it?" He did not want to talk about what happened with Hannah. He didn't want to talk about his lingering feelings for Bones. All he wanted to do was eat his breakfast and figure out who the Hell had blown up Santa.

"Sure." Sweets knew he had towed a little too close to the line and felt like he'd been slammed up against the wall that reinforced it. Of course they had a session tomorrow, mandated by the Deputy Director that was scheduled just to recertify the partners as partners after their long absence to make sure that things were going alright. Perhaps then there would be an opportunity to delve into things a little deeper.

Suddenly, words from Gordon Gordon filtered through Booth's mind and he directed his attention back to Sweets. "Man up and grow a pair. If you want Daisy don't piss around and mope because you feel like you need to punish yourself or her for what happened. You might end up losing her in the long run if you do." Maybe it was the liquor from the night before starting to remind him that he was going to need a little bit more coffee and an aspirin or maybe it was the sense of clarity that he was coming to about his own situation, but either way, the air of confidence he'd forced this morning was starting to feel a little bit more natural as he considered what he needed to do about Bones.

The truth of Booth's statement hit Sweets right between the eyes. "You're right. I've just been acting like a jerk trying to keep her guessing, when all I want is my Pookie Bear back." Without another word, Sweets dumped his napkin on top of his plate and made his way out of the diner.

Just when Booth though he was going to have a few quiet moments to himself to collect his thoughts, the waitress brought his food, refilled his coffee, handed him his bill and then gestured towards the empty place next to him with a raised eyebrow as she held up Sweets' bill. He waved it over and grumbled under his breath about how Sweets was going to pay for more than just the breakfast bill later as he pulled out a twenty to cover both meals.


	8. Chapter 8

It was several hours and a trip to the Hoover later when Special Agent Seeley Booth finally sauntered into the Jeffersonian with a swagger worthy of his Cocky belt buckle in search of his partner. In the vernacular, he was da man. Not only did he have some significant information that could change the entire direction of the case that he wanted to share with Bones, he was sure once they wrapped up the case that they could sit down and have a heart to brain talk and then everything in his world could be set right. He was absolutely sure that this was his day as he was intercepted by Hodgins.

"Dude, you totally missed all of the excitement earlier." Hodgins looked entirely amused and seemed more than happy to be the one that got to fill Booth in on the news and scoop his wife in the gossip department.

"What excitement?" He did a quick glance around and breathed a little easier. It didn't appear that anything had been blown up or shot, so whatever it was couldn't be as exciting as Hodgins claimed.

A soft chuckled emanated from the entomologist. "Sweets stormed in here a while ago, kissed Daisy like he was taking his last breath, professed his undying love to her and asked her to marry him." Hodgins had to admit that the shrink had balls.

Booth snorted out a chuckle. "Good for him." Apparently his impromptu diner pep talk had worked.

"Of course Doctor B was pissed because they were up on the forensics platform and because Daisy had a bone fragment in her hand at the time that she dropped." Another chuckle escaped him, after all he was just the bug and slime guy, and it wasn't his ass that was in a sling.

"Oh, no." The last thing he wanted right now was a Bones in a bad mood. If she found out that he'd accidentally had breakfast with Sweets right before the grand display, she was likely to illogically be upset with him for inspiring Sweets to finally take some action and getting in the way of her remains.

"Yeah." Hodgins leaned over conspiratorially. "At least Daisy said yes. Can you imagine the fallout if she'd said no?" Of course he knew what it was like to have the woman you love reject you multiple times. The important thing though is that he and Angela had still managed to end up with each other and now they were going to be parents in a few months. He couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face at that thought.

"Bones in her office?" He noticed the dreamy look on Hodgins' face and he didn't want to get drawn into whatever that was about.

Hodgins shook himself out of his reverie and nodded. "Yeah, but I'd be very careful. I think she's still pretty pissed about the desecration of the remains ala Daisy."

"Noted." Well he had his flashiest tie, some wild socks and his Cocky belt buckle. Remembering the phrase that Bones has used once he had to admit that he looked very Boothy, so he hoped that putting on his most charming smile would disarm any irritation she was still feeling over the incident on the platform.

Brennan glanced up momentarily from her computer as Booth walked into her office. She quickly took notice of the tie, he hadn't worn a tie that flashy in quite a while. "Any developments on the case?"

"Waiting for a warrant on our second Santa and I have a feeling that it might just blow the whole case wide open." He flashed his best megawatt smile at her as he plopped himself down in the chair opposite her desk and propped his feet up to not so subtly show off his socks.

"Nice socks." She had one brow raised and wondered what the reason for the vivid display was.

"They were a gift." If he remembered correctly, they had been a gift from her. If he didn't remember correctly, well he was sure he was going straight to partner hell.

"From Hannah?" She could see that he was obviously proud of the socks and she was somewhat disappointed that he was so excited over a pair of socks that looked like ones she'd given him last Christmas.

His expression clouded and he let out a sigh, feet coming down off her desk into a more normal seated position. "You gave me the socks last year, Bones." Had she forgotten? Maybe he was making far more of a big deal of the socks that he should have.

"Oh, yes, I recognized them; however, given how close it is to Christmas and your romantic relationship with Hannah, I thought perhaps they were from her." Brennan felt a pang that she couldn't quite compartmentalize at the thought that this Christmas wasn't going to be as special as the previous one when everyone spent it with her.

He decided to play one of his cards as he leaned forward a hair in his chair. "There won't be any gifts from Hannah this year." He watched Bones to see if the wheels in her brain were catching on to what he was implying.

"Is she a Jehovah's Witness? They do not celebrate holidays." Her anthropological mind was considering other possibilities that might logically apply to the blond reporter.

"No, she's not a Jehovah's Witness. At least I don't think she is." Booth should have expected this kind of rabbit trail, but was taken by surprise and didn't quite refocus fast enough.

"There are several other Christian religious sects that also do not celebrate Christmas." She knew that Christmas was a big deal for Booth and she was disappointed for him that the woman he was in a committed relationship with didn't share the value of the day with him.

"It has nothing to do with religion, Bones." He sounded a little frustrated that they were having this conversation now. He wanted to wait until they didn't have the case to deal with so he could fully explain what had happened and why it had happened and most of all, how he was feeling about her.

"Is she an agnostic or atheist? Because the secular celebration of Christmas has almost no religious connotation left to it. It's all about commercialism and overindulgence." And quite frankly it was statistically far more probably that Hannah held no religious affiliation given what Brennan knew about her.

"It's nothing like that." A tiny smirk played at the corner of his mouth. Leave it to Bones to overcomplicate something that should have been simple. He recognized it for what it was – an attempt to identify and understand how it might make him feel to get no Christmas present from Hannah. For someone who had claimed that she didn't have an open heart, hers was living on her sleeve.

"Oh." Her brown furrowed in confusion. "Can she simply not afford a gift? I would assume given her line of work that she makes a more than adequate salary, unless of course she has over extended herself financially, which is true of most Americans."

Booth rolled his eyes and then leaned in, getting straight to the point. "Hannah broke up with me last night. She's on her way back to Afghanistan."

Now that was something that she hadn't seen coming at all and she was rendered temporarily speechless. She looked into Booth's eyes, her expression softening. "I'm sorry. I know you loved her."

"Thanks, Bones." He hadn't expect to feel what he was feeling just then, a feeling that he'd shoved down as far as he could manage when they'd gone their separate ways so many months before. This was what it felt to truly love someone when you just couldn't help yourself.

"Why did she break up with you?" It made no sense to her at all. Booth and Hannah had seemed very happy and wasn't that what Booth had always wanted? Their happiness had actually been part of the catalyst of her own recognition of the regret she felt at not giving Booth a chance.

"It's complicated." This was his opportunity to set things right, to turn the world back to the way it should have been. Before he could say another word though, a voice interjected itself into the conversation.

"Who broke up with who?" Angela stood there in the doorway to Brennan's office, not entirely meaning to be nosey, but feeling very fortunate to have walked in on what was possibly the scoop of the year since Hodgins had managed to beat her to punch about filling Booth in on Sweets and Daisy.


	9. Chapter 9

The last few days had been a flurry of activity, the inopportune interruption from Angela had put a hold on the conversation Booth wanted to have with Bones and a timely phone call letting him know that the warrant was ready had offered an escape from further interrogation. As it turned out, the warrant served on Eric Stratton's home had turned up some surprising evidence that had actually implicated his wife in the explosion that had killed Paul Kizner. When confronted with it, she confessed, admitting that her 'lying, cheating, bastard of a husband' was her intended target. With her confession, as baffling as it was considering divorce would have been a far less catastrophic option, the case was nearly closed except for some paperwork that could wait for a few days until after Christmas and the trial which would likely be months away.

It was nearly eleven o'clock at night when a soft tap sounded on Brennan's door and her brow furrowed quizzically. It had been a long time since she'd had a visitor this late, but somehow she knew exactly who was standing on the other side of the door. She pulled herself off of the couch and set aside the forensic journal she'd been reading and went to answer it. A tiny smirk pulled at her mouth as she opened the door to find her partner standing there wearing jeans, a vintage rock tee and his leather jacket.

"Hey, Bones, I saw your light on from the street and I thought you might be hungry." It was a complete lie, but one that they'd perpetuated for years. He smiled at her as he hefted up the bag holding the take out which smelled delicious.

"You're going to make us both fat by bringing food by this late." She couldn't help but smile at this simple gesture that felt like some of the normalcy of their partnership was starting to return and she opened the door wide enough for him to pass by her before shutting it again. She went into the kitchen and retrieved a couple of plates and some utensils and then made her way over to the couch and sat down in the spot she'd vacated only moments before. "It smells good."

"Got your favorite." He knew that it was all her favorite so he couldn't go wrong with anything that the Indian restaurant around the corner from her apartment had to offer. Booth let out a sigh as they settled themselves on her couch. He glanced over as she opened one of the bags and pulled out one of the cartons and started to fill each plate with food. He had a lot of his mind and he wasn't quite sure how to start.

She glanced over at him and knew that he hadn't just stopped by because he thought she was hungry. "Do you want something to drink? Wine, maybe beer?"

"A beer sounds good." And that would give him an excuse to stay for a little while to make sure he was safe to drive home and to maybe work up the courage to share what was on his mind. He watched her as she got up from the couch and made her way into the kitchen, returning with two beers, one for herself and one she handed to him as she sank back into the couch next to him.

The old Brennan would have just gone along with the flow of things and waited until Booth got around to why he'd stopped by so late, but she wasn't that woman anymore. She had evolved while she was in Maluku. She'd had time for self reflection while Booth had been dating Hannah and she'd come to grips with her own reality. She was no longer content to just sit by and wait for the life that she had expected she'd have to happen. The man sitting next to her had just broken off a pretty significant relationship and now he was here showing up late at night bearing take out and acting chummy like old times. Only it wasn't exactly like old times. She had let him know that she had feelings for him, that she'd made a mistake when she had rejected him when he'd offered himself to her and somehow she hoped that there was redemption in their future and time for second chances. She looked directly at him and spoke gently. "Why'd you come by so late?"

Booth's eyes snapped to hers and he felt his heart lurch in his chest. Somehow he thought he'd have a little time to ease into things, but it didn't appear that things were going to go that way. As much as he wanted to hedge a little, he knew that with Bones honesty was the only way to go. "I wanted to talk to you...wanted to finish the conversation from the other day."

She glanced down at her beer, suddenly finding the condensation slipping down the side entrancing. "You mean about Hannah?" Her metaphoric heart sank.

"Not just that, Bones." He already felt like this was going all wrong already. "There was a reason that things between her and I didn't work out." It wasn't because he didn't have feelings of love towards Hannah - he did, it was because those feelings didn't have the depth of the feelings he'd been shoving down since he'd let go of his partner's hand in the airport all those months ago.

There was just the faintest hint of a waver in her voice. "Surely it wasn't because you lacked sexual compatibility." For someone who had preached the value of releasing biological urges, she certainly sounded jealous.

He let out a sigh and hung his head not really sure how to proceed. "No, I suppose it wasn't." It was the truth, he and Hannah had been all passion and chemistry and not much substance, not when he compared her to the woman sitting beside him. The difference between the two was like comparing a picket fence to the Great Wall of China. "But there's a hell of a lot more to a relationship than sex." He just looked at her, willing her to understand that he had some important things on his heart and he just needed her to try and open hers and listen.

"I'm sorry." She wasn't sure what else to say, but she could tell that she was making this difficult for him, but it was difficult for her too.

"Don't be." Booth offered her a gentle smile and reached over and took the beer out of her hand, set it on the coffee table before his fingers wrapped around hers. "Bones, you need to know that I've never stopped having feelings for you."

"I don't know what that means." She really didn't know what it meant and she looked over at him, her eyes wide, searching his. "You need to tell me what that means." Her heart was beating wildly and she wanted to believe that there was a chance for them, but he had thrown away his idea of love so conveniently that she wasn't sure what to make of it all.

He gave her hand a squeeze and looked into her eyes, the way he had many times over the years. "What that means is that I never stopped loving you. I tried to move on. I _thought_ I _had_ moved on. But what I'd really done was just try and pack my feelings into a little box until they couldn't help but explode."

"I'm very confused, and I'm not used to being confused." Her gaze didn't waver at all as she waited for him to answer her.

"What I'm trying to say is, I know it's probably too soon, but do you think we could take a little time and then maybe see if we could give us a try?" His heart was hanging out there like a tattered flag flapping in the wind.

She was quiet for a long moment and then she leaned in a little closer and squeezed his hand. "Do you need time _and_ space?"

He shook his head, feeling a sense of relief washing over him. "No, just some time." Although how much time he wasn't exactly sure.

"Okay." Brennan smiled and felt more content than she had in months. "But exactly how much time do you think you need?" She didn't want to wait forever. They had already wasted so much time as it was. Since she had come to the conclusion that she was in fact in love with Booth, his confession that he had never stopped having feelings for her, shifted her reality yet again, and she had no intention of letting this second chance slip away.

"I don't know. Just some time." In his mind he reasoned that it wasn't right to break up with one woman he thought he loved to be with another that he'd loved since he first set eyes on her.

She wasn't the people person, but she'd learned to read him. "If you're afraid of what other people think if they suddenly see us together, somehow I doubt it would come as a complete shock." The corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

He let out a soft chuckle. "You know, you're right." He looked at her and wondered why in the world he felt he needed to do some sort of sick penance for being in love, when Hannah had told him to figure out whatever it was that he felt for Bones. He didn't need to figure it out, he just needed to embrace it.

"I know I am." She reached over and her fingers gripped the lapels of his leather jacket, tugging him towards her. For the first time her voice held just a hint of doubt as their lips hovered a fraction of an inch from each other. "Do you still see forty or fifty years?"

Their breath mingled together as he looked into her eyes. "Yeah, I do." And then he closed the distance between them and kissed her.


	10. Chapter 10

_**One year later.**_

The snow was swirling gently around DC. People were rushing around making last minute purchases. Lines to see Santa seemed to be extra long with only three days until Christmas, every child wanted to make sure that the jolly old elf knew exactly what they hoped to see under the tree on Christmas morning. Even the Royal Diner was decked out in appropriately festive décor as if to declare that right now even the apple pie would taste more magical.

Magical pie was not something that Temperance Brennan believed in, nor was she going to cave to the cajoling of her partner that she was missing out on the best pie he'd ever had. She simply smirked and plucked a French fry off of his plate and slipped it into her mouth. "I don't like my fruit cooked, Booth."

"C'mon, Bones, you don't know what you're missing." It was the age old dance they'd been doing for years and he couldn't help but smile as he watched her wrinkle up her nose at the idea.

"I _do_ know what I'm missing, and I am sure that I don't like my fruit cooked." She took a sip of her coffee and just shook her head in amusement at him.

The bell on the door of the diner jingled and gently smacked against the glass and a rush of cold air from outside rushed in with the next patron. Neither Booth nor Brennan bothered to look to see who it was until a voice that they hadn't heard for quite some time greeted them in surprise.

"Seeley. Temperance. Hi." Hannah Burley hadn't been in DC in nearly a year. She'd been all over the world and had stopped in the nation's capital for a few days to check in with the national news director and take a bit of a respite from her travels. Somehow she'd felt a slice of pie calling her name, and she thought maybe she might run into the partners, but it certainly wasn't intentional.

"Hannah." Brennan smiled easily at her and gestured to the empty chair next to her. "Do you want to join us?" She wasn't sure that the other woman would accept her invitation, given the circumstances surrounding her departure.

Hannah's eyes widened slightly and she glanced over at Seeley. "I don't want to impose." She glanced around and noticed that there really weren't too many open spots in the diner this time of day.

"It's no imposition, is it, Booth?" Brennan looked over at him, tilted her head a bit and seemed to shrug her shoulders with her eyes.

"Uh, no. No imposition at all. Have a seat." It wasn't that Booth actually still had any romantic feelings for his former girlfriend, it was just that he was a little surprised to see her after all this time and so many things had changed since then.

"I'm actually supposed to be meeting someone here. You're sure it's no imposition." Hannah hesitated only briefly before taking the chair that Brennan had offered.

"Why would I offer if it was an imposition?" Ever the rational one, Brennan didn't stand on pretense or say something she didn't mean.

"Of course." Hannah smiled at her and slid into the seat. She had forgotten how refreshing the other woman's candor could be.

"Are you just passing through DC?" Booth knew that tying Hannah down was like trying to shoot down a housefly with a rubber band, possible, but not very easy.

"I'm here for a little while." An amused smirk danced across Hannah's face. "There are just some things that are difficult to accomplish overseas." She seemed to be privy to a secret that she wasn't quite ready to share.

"If you're going to be here through New Years, you should come and join us. Angela and Hodgins are hosting a party. Plus, you could see their daughter Chloe." Brennan knew that Hannah and Angela had hit it off and in most cultures females typically bonded over small children.

"I'll have to check with Mark." Hannah's face seemed to light up as she mentioned his name. "But it would be nice to see Angela again."

Booth raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Mark? Is it serious?" Old habits died hard and he wasn't above checking into the past of this guy to make sure he wasn't sketchy.

Hannah sat up a bit straighter and looked him right in the eyes. "Yes, it's very serious." A slight smirk tugged at her mouth again. "I hope you're not jealous." The reality was that she hoped that Seeley had gotten his act together and told Temperance exactly how he felt about her. As an investigative reporter it was almost a matter of personal pride if her instincts had been off.

"No jealousy here." Booth held up his left hand and waggled his fingers to make sure she noticed the band on his ring finger. "I am officially off the market." He glanced over towards Bones and then back at Hannah.

Hannah glanced at Temperance who held her hand up as well and her mouth gaped open just a bit as she registered what had happened. She quickly recovered and offered a genuine smile. "Congratulations." She really and truly was happy. As much as she thought she loved Seeley when she was with him, she had found her soul mate in Mark and had never been happier.

Brennan glowed. "Yes, Booth and I committed to engage in a monogamous relationship with a desired duration of forty or fifty years."

"Or more." Booth felt the need to amend her comment because as far as he was concerned, forty or fifty years was just a down payment on forever.

"Yes, or more." Brennan set her cup down and scooted her chair back, glancing at Hannah and then Booth. "Uh, if you'll excuse me, I need to use the ladies room."

"Of course." Hannah smiled at her and then her eyes widened as if she wasn't quite sure she was seeing what she was clearly seeing. "Temperance, are you…" She glanced up and didn't quite finish her statement.

Brennan seemed amused and very proud. "Yes, I am pregnant. Booth and I expect that our child will arrive in late March. However, at the moment she seems more intent on kicking my internal organs."

"Or he. I keep telling her that we've got the future kicker for the Steelers in there." Booth looked exceptionally proud and extremely happy that he'd managed to get what he thought was beyond his wildest dreams.

"I'm not sure how you think you can determine our progeny's future career, but I'm sure that whatever she chooses to be, she'll be the very best in her field." With that she moved to stand before she received another kick in the bladder.

Hannah's phone chose that moment to chirp and she glanced down and a smile spread across her face as she stood up. "Look, I need to go, Mark is running late and he wants to meet me at the hotel." And truth be told, she didn't want to intrude any more than she felt that she already had on this happy little family.

"It was good to see you, Hannah." Brennan impulsively gave the other woman a hug. "Be sure to call about New Years, we'd like to meet Mark." With that she walked briskly in the direction of the restrooms.

Booth stood up and offered his hand to Hannah. "I hope that Mark is everything you were looking for." He wanted her to be happy. He had long ago let go of his self imposed guilt over ruining their romance because he hadn't been able to get over Bones and he truly hoped that Hannah could find even a fraction of the happiness that he now had.

"He is." There was no hesitation in her tone and she smiled broadly as she shook his hand and gathered up her purse. "Goodbye, Seeley."

"Goodbye, Hannah." He waved and smiled and then sat back into his seat to wait for his wife to return. His life was blissfully happy and he was so glad that everything really did happen eventually.

_**The End**_


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